Oilers 2, Red Wings 1

It seemed like Edmonton Oilers were up against it on Sunday afternoon. “Fresh” off a 65-minute game in Brooklyn in which the team lost two forwards in the first period, played with a shortened bench and had a short turnaround time to boot, the visitors faced an old nemesis in Detroit Red Wings who have beaten the Oilers for fun over the years. Moreover, workhorse goalie Cam Talbot got a deserved day off, meaning Todd McLellan had to go with his backup goaltender, the lightly-regarded Jonas Gustavsson. The Monster faced off against his old creasemate Jimmy Howard, who had beaten the Oilers 13 straight times dating all the way back to 2009. Last time an Edmonton team beat Howard, not a single member of the current Oilers was on the scene.

Put all that in the past tense now, as Edmonton came up with a strong team effort to upend the home-standing Red Wings, 2-1 in regulation, in the last-ever meeting of the two clubs at archaic Joe Louis Arena. Howard did his part with some outstanding saves but Gustavsson stood tall at the other end, turning aside 22 of 23 shots to earn the victory in his first start as an Oiler.

Tyler Pitlick and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were the scoring heroes for Edmonton, each of whom earned the plaudits with an excellent overall game. After falling behind early, the Oilers gradually took control of the game, protecting their narrow lead through an excellent third period in which they held Detroit to just 4 shots. Edmonton outshot their hosts 28-23 overall, had a 14-12 edge in scoring chances and a 10-6 bulge in high-danger chances (all numbers courtesy Natural Stat Trick).

With the weekend sweep the Oil have righted the ship, clinching at least a .500 road trip with one game left in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. On the season their record now stands at an imposing 9-3-1.

Player grades:

#2 Andrej Sekera, 5. Played a solid game on what turned out to be, by ice time, the third pairing. Had trouble clearing the puck a time or two but showed a good “active stick” in tight to his own goal.

#6 Adam Larsson, 7. Played 23:42 including 22:35 at even strength, during which time the Oilers dominated all possession metrics, including an 11-6 margin in shots on goal and 6-2 in high-danger scoring chances. Larsson played a big role in the game’s only even strength goal, helping to keep the puck in at the blueline and allowing his forwards to reboot the attack. Was a rock in his own end, especially in the last 1:45 when he was a tower of power, blocking shots and passes and clearing the zone.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 5. Weird game for his group, which got crushed by old-fashioned shot metrics like Corsi but which won the scoring chance battle decisively. Eberle made a terrific play to set up Maroon for two close-range shots, then was on the receiving end of a fine McDavid feed only to be stoned by Howard.

#15 Tyler Pitlick, 8. Promoted to the Draisaitl-Lucic line due to the injury bug, and responded to the challenge with his best game as a pro. Skated hard, hit hard, took the puck hard to the net. Was rewarded with a goal when he was able to beat Howard across the net on a wrap-around rebound and bounce the puck in off the Detroit ‘tender. Was later robbed by one of Howard’s best stops when he ripped a one-timer off a splendid Draisaitl set-up. Led the team with 6 shots on goal, and also chipped in with 3 hits including a beauty that felled Detroit D-man Danny DeKeyser. Oilers enjoyed tremendous shot and scoring-chance shares during his 15 minutes. Made a subtle but key defensive zone play late in the game when he covered the low slot for his scrambling defencemen, intercepting and clearing a potentially dangerous pass.

#19 Patrick Maroon, 5. He was one Oiler who laboured a little with the pace, and found himself on the wrong side of his man a couple of times. Did generate 3 shots, all from close range, and landed a couple of hits.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 5. Played a shade under 20 minutes paired with Gryba on a largely effective duo, when they could stay out of the penalty box at least. Nurse’s infraction for hooking early in the final frame was of the nebulous type, fortunately his mates killed it off and proceeded to shut the game down from there. Nurse himself was one of the culprits on the Detroit goal when he found himself on the wrong side of Justin Abdelkader. Otherwise was a solid contributor to the cause, doing a solid job of marking his man and skating the puck out of trouble a few times.

#27 Milan Lucic, 6. One of his better games in a while, especially on the puck distribution side of things. Received an assist for a wide shot of all things, but perhaps earned it with his overall play. One of two Oilers to be on the ice for both Edmonton goals and had a role to play on each of them.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Best player on the ice to my eye, skating miles with both speed and purpose. Made great feeds to Lucic and Pitlick to force two of Howard’s best stops, and forced a couple more himself with dangerous shots including an impressive one-handed effort while he was fending off a Detroit defender with the other. Great possession numbers across the board, with Leon himself being the primary driver of that. Did earn a slightly marginal assist on Pitlick’s goal by helping win a board battle, but this was after he’d already driven the puck 150 feet north with a strong intercept-give-and-go in his own end followed by a dash through the neutral zone. One of his best games as an Oiler.

#42 Anton Slepyshev, 6. Played a shade under 10 minutes in his return to the line-up and comported himself well. The big man really skates well and used that to his advantage more than once, including a hard backcheck on Tomas Tatar when it looked like the Wings might have an odd-man rush. 2 shots, 1 hit, and 0 problems whatsoever.

#45 Taylor Beck, 5. Made his Oilers debut just hours after starring in an AHL game on the west coast late Saturday, and held his own. 8 minutes of action, a couple of hits, and looked just fine moving the puck on a makeshift fourth line with Lander and Slepyshev.

#50 Jonas Gustavsson, 8. “Very good” game upgraded to “great” due to the cirumstances — Oilers debut, first action in many weeks, beat his old team. But make no mistake, the Monster was very good. Beaten at close range by Abdelkader after a slightly suspect rebound, he slammed the door thereafter with a number of solid stops and a couple of real beauties. Did some very nice work with his paddle, and his familiarity with the lively boards at the Joe was a real plus. Stick tap to Todd McLellan for choosing the right situation to get him in there. 23 shots, 22 saves, .957 Sv%.

#51 Anton Lander, 6. Played his first game of the year at centre, and with brand new linemates at that. The trio held their own at evens, while Lander also chipped in with 1:49 on the penalty kill to lead the forwards. He’s a pit bull along the walls, highlighted in this game by one extended sequence where he battled fellow Swede Henrik Zetterberg and came out with the puck. 5/10=50% on the dot with the usual surfeit of own-zone work.

#55 Mark Letestu, 6. He too flipped positions, moving up to right wing to fill in for the injured Jesse Puljujarvi on a line with RNH and Pouliot. The trio carried the play to a large degree and was entrusted by McLellan to finish out the last 1:45 of the game. 7/15=46% on the dot, although he lost a couple in the late going which made for some tense moments.

#62 Eric Gryba, 5. Another rock solid game by the vet, other than the needless penalty he took in the first which led to the lone Wings goal. Two minutes for rambunctiousness, I think it was. Later drew a penalty the other way, in a game each team was whistled just twice. Played his usual robust game with a team-high 4 hits and a lot more won battles, but also moved the puck well with a number of decent outlet passes. Notable was a give-and-go with McDavid where Gryba fed the phenom in the neutral zone, then jumped into the play to take the return feed and wire a hard shot on Howard.

#67 Benoit Pouliot, 5. High-event winger played a rare game where he failed to record a personal stat of any type, but made some solid contributions all the same, many of them disrupting Detroit moves. Was rightly upbraided by colour man Drew Remnda when he twice failed to clear the zone in the late stages, but made up for that in the dying seconds with one fine defensive play to tip the puck away from the dangerous Mike Green and another seconds later to clear the puck out of the zone.

#77 Oscar Klefbom, 7. Played a team-high 24:13, including time on both special teams. Earned an assist on RNH’s game-winner with a decent play from the point. He and Larsson were a solid pair in this one, with the latter being the more noticeable in the defensive zone while Klefbom led the d-corps offensively with 5 shot attempts, 4 of which beat the traffic to test Howard.

#83 Matt Benning, 5. A couple of issues clearing the zone but no major breakdowns in the aftermath. Made one real nice play to break up a 2-on-1 and another to tip a dangerous Dylan Larkin shot into the netting.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Another strong two-way game. Made a fine play in the neutral zone to take a hard pass out of mid-air, control it, and immediately feed a winger on the counterattack. Is looking very comfortable as the primary puck-mover on his line (with Pouliot and Letestu on Sunday) and is not hesitant about letting fly with his wrist shot, even ripping a slapper on one occasion. Scored the game-winner on an absolute rocket on the powerplay, taking McDavid’s return feed and wiring a bar-down blast that overpowered Howard. Was a team-best 7/12=58% in the faceoff circle.

#97 Connor McDavid, 6. By eye he had an off-game, didn’t really seem to have his A++ skating legs and didn’t so much as attempt a shot. But he made several sharp feeds for scoring chances, including the one to RNH for the game-winner. This on a powerplay which he had drawn himself, then won the draw to begin the 8-second sequence. Otherwise got slaughtered on the dot (4/13=31%) while leading the Oilers in just one statistical category — giveaways, with 2. Normally I might conclude “not his day” except he still managed to turn chicken feathers into chicken salad.

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